New Treatments Brighten Future for Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Combination drug therapy controls pain and prevents disability

Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms

• Morning stiffness that lasts at least an hour before subsiding
• Stiffness and swelling in three or more joints
• Joints affected symmetrically on both sides of the body
• Weight loss
• Fatigue

Early diagnosis is important. If you have symptoms, see your primary doctor for an evaluation and referral to a rheumatologist.

Micah Howey of Bangor (in photo) was 20 years old when the joint stiffness and pain began. For five years, he brushed off his symptoms; then one morning he found his hip too swollen to walk. Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Howey, now 32, was given Tylenol and sent home. Over the next two years his condition got so bad he had to quit his roofing job.

More than 40 million Americans suffer from arthritis, and RA—the most serious form—affects more than 2 million. The majority are women age 30-50, although RA can develop in men or women at any age. A glitch in the body’s immune system causes it to malfunction, resulting in chronic inflammation that erodes bone and cartilage and eventually causes disability. Though scientists have yet to discover the exact cause, it appears to involve both environment and genetics.

In the past 10 years, research has revealed more about how RA develops, helping doctors to better diagnose and treat the condition. Newer drug therapies work by targeting the underlying cause—an overactive immune system—rather than just easing pain and swelling. Medications called DMARDs (disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs) actually halt the progression of the disease and control up to 90 percent of symptoms.

“Early diagnosis followed by aggressive treatment with today’s newer medications can prevent disability,” says internist Mark Kender, M.D., of Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network. “The majority of patients can live a normal and pain-free life with combination therapy, up to three medicines taken together to suppress the immune system,” says his colleague, rheumatologist Kristin Ingraham, D.O.

After coping with RA for 10 years, Howey finally found his way to a rheumatologist—Ingraham’s colleague, Marie O’Brien, D.O.—and it made all the difference. Combination therapy allowed him to return to work, and he got married and became a father. (He is shown above with daughter Ava, now 5 months old.) “The medications I’m taking now have given me a new life,” he says. “I’m in remission and feel like I’m 20 years old again.”

Want to Know More about the differences between osteo-arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis? Call 610-402-CARE or click here.

Published from Healthy You Magazine, March-April 2008

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